What's it Like To Drive?
Driving a 2 1/2-ton is surprisingly easy. They feel smaller than they actually are. Forward visibility is really good because the fenders are dropped and the hood is rather small. If you're used to driving with any kind of truck body on the back of a dualie 1-ton, you can handle one of these. The hardest thing to get used to is the ride height and lack of power steering. Riding on 9.00-20 tires (about 41 inches tall) you'll be towering above your buddy's 1-ton and struggling in the parking lot at Wal-Mart. The clutch, brakes, and other controls were simple and worked as smooth and as easy as any 1-ton. There are no unexpected gremlins that surface while driving. In fact, the five-speed tranny is unusually easy to shift (despite its odd shift pattern). Rowing smoothly through the gears of an SM465, T-18, SM420, or other truck manual is often more difficult.
Our road test brought us to Moab, Utah, where we drove our Army Green machine over 300 miles on- and off-road. We don't have great fuel economy data, but we'd guess it's around 6 mpg. During our three days of driving we only filled the 78-gallon tank with diesel once. Not because it was low, but because we didn't want to risk running out of fuel in the middle of nowhere.
With some on-road driving and a successful run over part of the Golden Spike trail under our belt, we decided to take on something a little more difficult. So we headed over to Hell's Revenge. After watching Diesel Power Editor David Kennedy take the 13K-plus pound truck for an uncontrolled bobsled run down a short, snow-covered patch and then deciding it was a good idea to ride along on what seemed like a near-death icy-sidehill experience we came to the conclusion that the bias-ply nondirectional tires (NDTs) at full pressure were pretty much worthless in snow and ice. At this point it seemed prudent to turn around because the upcoming sidehills were covered with even more ice and were even steeper. We didn't have a tire gauge, so we winged it and later found out that we had inadvertently aired all 10 tires to around 10-15 psi, quite a bit lower than the "cross country" tire pressure (40 psi front, 25 psi rear) recommended by the dash placard. The tires have inner tubes, so we weren't worried about popping a bead. At our "trail" pressures the truck stuck pretty good to just about everything and got us out of our potential trail Deuce overnight sleepover, but it sure was hard to steer. You really need to hang tight onto the steering wheel both on- and off-road, and putting your thumbs inside the wheel was a sure way to snap 'em off when the wheel jerked from the input of a trail obstacle or curb. It seems like it would be simple enough to upgrade to power steering with later M35A3 components, or even with an add-on ram assist, pump, and inline control valve.
Other than on ice, the 2 1/2-ton was an animal off-road. We drove up and over things that we never expected a 13,530-pound truck to climb. And our truck had open diffs! The rear suspension pivots and articulates to permit excellent traction over rough terrain. The stiff-looking front end even flexes more than you would think. And with 10 tires in contact with the trail, there were very few places that we spun a tire (unless it was icy). With three lockers, power steering, and some good tires, we'd be downright dangerous. Deuces over the Rubicon anyone?
The 2 1/2-ton trucks were built by Kaiser, GMC, AM General, and others in many configurations. The most common is perhaps the AM General troop carrier. With the troop seats folded up or removed, we think you'd have a pretty sweet flatbed tow truck. Also, the military is always very conservative when defining tow ratings. In our experience it sandbags its ratings by half. Even so, the pintle hitch on the back of the Deuce has an impressive 10,000-pound capacity.
This is one of our favorite...
This is one of our favorite features. On hot days you can either flip the two front windshield panes up or take the top off and lay the whole windshield down on the hood just like a real Jeep.
A 2 1/2-ton is way too loud...
A 2 1/2-ton is way too loud to bother installing a radio in, so as a passenger we spent a lot of time memorizing the data plates screwed to the dash. Few service manuals have as much information as what's plastered right on the dash of these trucks.
The front suspension is made...
The front suspension is made up of a typical leaf-sprung shackle reversal configuration. Even though the thick leaf packs look extremely stiff, they actually flex pretty good and don't ride half bad.
Our test vehicle had just...
Our test vehicle had just over 9,000 miles (yup, that's it) on the odometer, and the transmission and transfer case shifted very well. A Spicer 3053A five-speed feeds a divorce-mounted Timken T136 transfer case to power the truck's six-wheel drive system. Basically, the transfer case lets you shift between rear-wheel drive (both axles) and six-wheel drive (all three axles) via an air shifter mounted on the dash. To shift into low range you pull up on a lever that is mounted on the floor of the truck's cab.
Notice anything missing? No...
Notice anything missing? No shocks. The rear suspension on 2 1/2-ton trucks relies on a simple three-link system to locate each of the axles while inverted leaf springs handle the load-bearing duties. We thought the 2 1/2-ton rode very well when empty considering it will handle up to 16,688 pounds when loaded down. However, there were a few unexpected high speed bumps that lead to the rear end catching air. It's not exactly a prerunner.